by Mary Margaret Olohan
Catholic priests and Jewish congregants have filed a lawsuit against Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio over double standards on worship and protests.
Two Catholic priests from upstate New York and three Orthodox Jewish congregants from Brooklyn filed lawsuit June 10 against Cuomo, de Blasio, and Attorney General Letitia James in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York.
“It is time to end New York’s experiment in absolute monarchy,” said Thomas More Society Special Counsel Christopher Ferrara in a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We are asking the court to put an end to these unconstitutional executive orders and their prejudicial enforcement.”
The lawsuit accuses Cuomo, de Blasio, and James of infringing on freedoms of religion, speech, assembly, expressive association, and due process, according to a press release from the Thomas More Society, and Senior Judge Gary L. Sharpe has ordered the defendants to file a response by noon on June 15.
The Thomas More Society’s complaint lists a number of alleged abuses of power, accusing the defendants of exploiting the pandemic to create “a veritable dictatorship” through Cuomo’s executive orders, of selectively enforcing social distancing through fines and punishments, and more.
“These orders, both the emergency stay-home and reopening plan declarations, clearly discriminate against houses of worship,” Ferrara said. “They are illegally content based, elaborate, arbitrary and pseudo-scientific.”
“The governor and his agents, along with New York City’s mayor have employed favoritism and political platforms against people of faith,” Ferrara added. “Why is a large worship gathering deemed more dangerous than a mass protest, full of shouting, arm-waving people in close proximity to one another?”
The lawsuit comes as de Blasio and Cuomo allow protests and riots to go on throughout both New York City and the state while religious services have been banned or restricted.
Protests have erupted across the country in response to the death of George Floyd, who died May 25 in Minneapolis police custody after an officer knelt on his neck for more than 8 minutes, a video of the incident showed.
De Blasio said Thursday that trips to a playground might be too risky for the spread of COVID-19, but declined to say the same about the protests.
The Thomas More Society notes in a press release that only days after de Blasio was caught without a face mask at a political gathering in New York City — despite the requirement that all New Yorkers wear face masks and avoid gatherings of more than 10 people — police enforced the state’s ban on gatherings of more than 10 people and kicked a small group of Hasidic Jewish children out of a park.
De Blasio has also threatened to arrest and prosecute members of the Jewish community who held “illegal” religious gatherings during the lockdowns.
Cuomo and de Blasio did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the DCNF.
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Mary Margaret Olohan is a reporter for The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Andrew Cuomo” by Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Patrick Cashin. CC BY 2.0. Photo “Bill De Blasio” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
